Today’s the day that I’ll be pulling on my aquasuit and diving into The Dark Deeps blog tour! The virtual excitement is palpable. It’s all part of the Sept. 14th release of the American version of the novel. I thought, like all trips, I’d start off here at home on my own blog then splash, zip, fly, glide and telegram my way across the steam-powered interweb for the next week.
My topic is one I know you’re all dying to hear about. Yes, I'm going to let you have a peek into the secret world of an author and answer that age-old question: “What’s it like to receive all those free author copies?” If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been asked that question I’d have two nickels! Yes, two of ‘em. I might even rub them together.
I tell you, the day my author copies arrive is a glorious day. And my publisher pulls out all the stops. First, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie drop off the boxes of books. I know they’re busy people, what with movies to star in, diapers to change, and paparazzi to avoid, yet they still take the time to generously deliver books to authors. They say hi, btw.
Here are some snaps of the boxes filled with author copies. See their carboardy goodness? See the on sale date? Is there nothing more exciting than an author taking pictures of cardboard boxes?
Then I open the box. You’ll be surprised to know that Random House uses bling as packing material: jewels, money, and free movie tickets! It’s very kind of them to do that (though I usually throw it away, after all kid-lit authors already have natural bling).
Finally I get to hold the very book in my hand. That’s right someone somewhere took all those words out of my electronic file and put them on flattened tree pieces and ta dah--it’s a book! A miracle, I tell thee! And yes, I always wear a suit to work.
I got a big surprise when I opened the next box, though! Inside were more books! They practically leaped out. And there was a stuffed puppy (toy puppy, that is). This is in case there’s a bad review of the book. It’s for the author to hug, obviously (they used to send Dr. Phil to comfort dejected authors, but it got too expensive to fly his audience around with him). You may also notice the key to the Jaguar--I get a new car whenever Random House publishes one of my books. I now have four Ferraris and a Jaguar. Oh, and an iPad and an iPod were used as packing material (I just throw these out because I already have twelve of them and only two hands).
And that’s it! Well, not entirely. You may not know it but authors often recreate famous scenes from movies with their free author copies. Here’s an example:
Does it look familiar to you? It’s the scene in The Lord of the Rings where the orcs are scaling up the wall to attack Minas Tirith! I knew you’d get it.
Oh, and the rumor that the American version of The Dark Deeps hired puppets to attack the foreign editions is not true. Unless you believe in photographic evidence.
And there you have it, just another day in the glorious life of a children’s author. Swell, eh?
Cheers,
Art
Please feel free to join the rest of my tour.
On Saturday I'll be at Cynsations discussing how to write steampunk in two easy steps.
On Sunday I'll zip over to Free The Princess and answer a few Q&A's.
Monday you'll find me at Steamed. Here I'll discuss the creation of the book trailers for The Hunchback Assignments.
Tuesday I'll airship over to Steampunk Tribune to discuss villains! Villains! Villains. Eeek!
Wednesday I'll take the steam train to Suvudu to let you all know the playlist behind The Hunchback Assignments.
Thursday I'll be heading over to Steampunk Scholar to wax on about steampunky things.
And Friday the blog tour will end at Looking Glass Review where I'll attempt to define steampunk. Ha, good luck!
Writing a novel is a great way to lose weight. I recently finished a deadline a week late (or perhaps it's more correct to say that I asked for an extension and met the new deadline). Anyway, it was about two months of concentrated work. I added about 20,000 words to the first draft and did all the usual rewriting. But I do believe it's my treadmill desk that pulled me through this latest deadline. In that time I walked for 167 hours, travelling 266 kilometres (165 miles,) and lost 4 pounds. See, writing novels is the newest weight loss program! I just need a celebrity spokesperson and I'll be off to the races.
I recently received this photo from 
named after Eric's grade five teacher. There's a lot more going on than I can describe here and help is always needed, so if you're interested click the 
As you can see they kept the library dark so that the students could close their eyes and be lulled into a sleep as I told them stories of assassins, goth queens, and steam powered monstrous creations. I recommend a Google street view of the library, it looks like a very cool place. The students followed up with brilliant questions and we all talked about how much we love Iron Maiden. Err, maybe that was just me talking.
Had an absolutely wonderful time launching 
Well, last Friday I plopped myself on a plane and ended up in Miami for the Miami Book Fair (actually it was a bit of a longer trip than that, as I first flew to Colorado then on to Miami, but I thought I'd skip telling you every detail...you know what kind of snacks I had, the amount of turbulence, did I fasten my seatbelt, did I read magazines etc..). We landed. I was eager to learn more about Miami (this being my first trip), but was pretty sure I already knew most everything from watching Miami Vice (it's like CSI: Miami, but everyone dresses better) and Dexter. As my cab pulled up to the Hyatt I saw a crowd of people dressed to the max (tuxedo suits, fancy suits, fancy dresses) and thought "I am soooo underdressed for this festival." Turns out they were all people waiting for Donald Trump to arrive. Oh! 
The next morning I went to the festival site. It was like going to the future. They even have bus thingys that fly through the air. Or at least drive up above the streets. There were tents, and books, and tents, and people, and corn on the cob and books. Did I mention it was 27 degrees! (err, that's 80 F).
First I had a "speak off" with Al Gore. He talked about Global warming and ways to save the world and I talked about myself. Exciting, eh? 
myself, 
, then Frank brought them back to reality (well if you consider Megalodons in the present day reality) with Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes, and the Good Luck Circle. They were great to do a panel with, but I found myself very jealous of both of them. I mean Reade, how cool is that for a name? It's almost like a command. Reade my book! And Frank looks a little like David Lee Roth. I always wanted to look like David Lee Roth! Anyway this blog isn't about me (wait a sec--maybe it is).
I did get to meet the 
I was going to make a joke about this being a photo of my editor, but that would be an obvious attempt to suck up to the higher powers. Though the angel does have a remarkable resemblance to my publicist. Oh, and my mom. And my first grade teacher. And my agent. Really!
The 
And we ended it all by singing "God Save The Queen." Err, well maybe I just hummed a few bars quietly to myself. Once again another free signed book and bookmarks were received by the class. Three cheers!
The 
Well in a week, I'll be off to the 
